Over the weekend we claim a look atSquare - Enix ’s take on Darth Vaderfor its Play Arts Kai physical body line – and it was majuscule ! In solemnization of the awful absurdity that can happen when East meets West , here ’s 7 of the prison term Japan has adapt western franchises in its own weirdly endearing manner .
https://gizmodo.com/not-even-darth-vader-can-escape-the-madness-of-play-art-1637344431
Header Image : Bandai Namco’sSamurai Taisho Darth Vader
7. Sherlock Holmes – Sherlock Hound
Arthur Conan Doyle ’s capital tec has been a lot of things over the years – A shiner and Benedict Cumberbatch ’s zygomatic among the many different puppet to play him . But when fabled anime director Hayao Miyazaki got his hands on Holmes , he turned him and the rest of 19th Century London into anthropomorphic dog – with approach to steampunky technology , while they were at it .
Miyazaki only directed six of Sherlock Hound ’s 26 episode foot race – early job with the estate of Conan Doyle hold out long enough that by the sentence the series was ready to air in 1984 he ’d moved on to other projects – but two of those episodes were stitched together and released as a movie in Japan in the same twelvemonth the series air , alongside another Miyazaki project you ’re likely more familiar with : Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind .
If you like your Sherlock a little more like the BBC ’s most late adaptation , there ’s evena manga of that now .
6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Mutant Turtles: Chōjin Densetsu-hen
The mid - 1990s were the peak of Turtle ability , not just in the Cicily Isabel Fairfield but in Japan as well – so when Takara had new line of Ninja Turtle toys coming out , they joined forces with Ashi Productions to advance them with 2 crazy OVAs .
The first , pictured above , see the Turtles liberate an ancient spirit of light squall Crys - Mu from the Muta Stone – who in turn accord them the power to transform into ‘ Super Mutants ’ for three transactions , which turned the usual cartoony look of the Ninja Turtles into these disconcertingly buff Piccolo knockoffs . The 2d , The Coming of the Guardian Beasts – The Metal Turtles Appear ! had the turtles deed over the power to essentially turninto Gundams . Oh , Japan .
5. Star Wars – Star Wars x Manga
Interpretations of Star Wars in Japan are vast – everything from the PAK figure we saw over the weekend , to lightsaber chopsticks . But whilst we ’ve seen the demented action design , this time permit ’s have a look at Tokyopop ’s Star Wars x Manga series , which ran from 1998 and spread over the Original Trilogy andThe Phantom Menace – there was also a Take Shobo - produced manga based on Clone Wars , but unfortunately it used stills from the serial , rather than original art . Tokyopop ’s manga reimagined Han , Luke and Leia in a cutsey , traditional anime way , much to the chagrin of some western fans .
But just because they look a bit cunning , did n’t mean the manga range off from fury . Lightsaber engagement in fussy got a piece more gruesome than the original fights in the picture :
Yeeowch !
4. Agatha Christie – Agatha Christie’s Great Detectives Poirot and Marple
As we expose with Sherlock Hound , it ’s not just pop up culture icon who let the Japanification handling – literary heroes do too . We ’ve gone from tearing lightsaber taking apart to Agatha Christie crossover fanfiction in one step !
Agatha Christie ’s Great Detectives Poirot and Marple paired together the writer ’s legendary crime solvers Hercule Poirot ( who in the gum anime was basically David Suchet but with more haircloth on top ) and Miss Marple in 1930 ’s England . A young persona , Mabel West – the great - neice of Miss Marple – was made to tie the two previously seperate characters , but aside from Mabel , the curt - run serial was surprisingly faithful in adapt 20 of Christie ’s novels and brusque stories .
3. Halo – Halo Legends: Odd One Out
Just likeThe Animatrix and Gotham Knight before it , Halo Legends saw a group of legendary Japanese animation studios take on an iconic westerly property – in this case , Microsoft ’s sci - fi shooter series Halo . There ’s some pretty amazing shorts in the solicitation of 7 , but we ’re going to front at what was sure enough the wackiest of them all , Odd One Out , from Dragon Ball director Daisuke Nishio . you’re able to determine the whole short below , from Warner Bros. ’ Beyond the Lot Youtube distribution channel :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OESmU4LYl7U
The Dragon Ball influence is by all odds stiff in the short , which sees the comically OTT Spartan 1337 stranded on a mysterious exotic earth and in no short sentence :
A ) Gets eaten by a Dinosaur ,
B ) hire in a clenched fist battle with a atrocious Covenant creature , at one point punching it so hard the surrounding areapromptly detonate ,
C ) Gets carried away by a Pterodactyl .
Suffice to say , for the normally improbably self - serious Halo franchise , this was a scrap of a kooky oddball . But it ’s great !
2. The Avengers – Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers
Marvel is no stranger to Anime – there ’s been plenty of collaborations between Japanese studio apartment and the Comics giant for years , with Iron Man , the disco biscuit - world , Blade and Wolverine all getting serial and films over the years . However , none were quite so weird as Marvel ’s late Anime effort , Disk Wars .
Disk Wars is n’t actually about Marvel heroes – well , it sort of is and is n’t . It ’s mark in a creation where they exist as actual mass , but the series itself follows a mathematical group of young children – Akira , Hikaru , Edward , Chris and Jessica – who gain access to a piece of music of Tony Stark - developed technology call disk , which have the major power to trap supervillains in them , summonable for a poor geological period of meter . Unfortunately Loki intervenes and the Avengers get trap in magnetic disk , and the Thomas Kid now habituate them to muster the Avengers to do fight against a cavalcade of Marvel villain .
Yes , they turned the Avengers into Pokémon . It ’s a stroke of genius , honestly . Also , I ’d kind of love for Chris Evans to get an MCU version ofDisk War ’s Cap outfitat some head .
1. Batman – DC Comics Variant Play Arts Kai
Now this is good and uncanny , just what we want from this variety of collaboration !
Born from the same the same toy line that will give us that Darth Vader figure we saw at TGS last week , this re - imagining of the Dark Knight comes from one of Square - Enix ’s most prominent ( and infamous ) employee , Tetsuya Nomura , who leave Art counseling for a good chunk of the behemoth Final Fantasy biz series . Nomura ’s interlingual rendition of Batman looks a bit radical but fairly vanilla extract in that image : I mean certain , it ’s a bit mecha , but it ’s promiscuous to see the Batman influence in there ( even the use of Red is very Batman Beyond ) . But then you earn that this is n’t even his final form :
AAAAAH ! Batman ’s got arm - offstage - claws for a ness ! And he looks scarily likeBahamut ! This one probably does rove a small from ‘ Weird and Wonderful ’ Japanese re - appropriation to ‘ amazingly ludicrous ’ , but still , it ’s really rather fabulous . Give me an Anime with this outlandish creation , stat ! Square - Enix are definitely not done when it come to wacky versions of Batman though – at TGS they showed off a whole master of ceremonies of new interpretations of the fiber , includingSpartan Batman , Cowboy Batman , and evenBushido Batman . Long may Nipponese reinventions of the Caped Crusader continue .
Bonus Round ! Okay so this one ’s not actually Japanese – it ’s a parody by British Youtube clowning group#Mashed – but get on . Who would n’t want to play an Anime Doctor Who dating sim ?
Bagsy playing as Beige Batball Vegetable Boyfriend !
You ’re readingToybox , io9 ’s fresh blog for all things toss off culture . From ware to awing devotee origination , TV recapitulation and critical commentary on the raging topics of the sidereal day , you’re able to regain it all here !
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